The best Warlock build in Diablo 4, for my money, is all about the abyss—a new shadow-based skill tag that’s unique to their class. While these devil-pacted sorcerers can summon demons or hurl hellfire at enemies, their shadow builds absolutely shred, especially while levelling, thanks to one skill in particular: Dread Claws.
As someone who often plays shadow Necro myself, I could only look on in jealousy at some of the cool abyss skills the Warlock gets, including the best shadow-focused minion in the game through their Soul Shard mechanic.
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Warlock key skills, passives, and Soul Shard
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One of the most important parts of this abyss build is the Mastermind Shard you get once you unlock the Warlock class quests and the Soul Shards mechanic. The Mastermind Shard gives you a shadow worm minion called Laalish who follows you around and attacks enemies.
The reason Laalish is so important is that his shard grants you 30% increased damage for abyss skills when you have Shadowform, plus 5% additional movement speed for each stack. Activating the Command Laalish skill also gives you an AoE you can stand in to gain Shadowform easily. You’ll also want to take the Subjugation Fragment passive for the Mastermind Shard when that unlocks, as this will empower your Greater Demons—in this case, the Profane Sentinel turret—and give you a way to regenerate the Dominance you use to summon them.
I’ll explain all this in more depth down below, but having Shadowform and the damage bonuses it provides is super important for any abyss build.
These are the skills I recommend, including the passives you should pick for each when you unlock their level requirements:
1. Hellion Sting
- Damage (Level 5): Hellion Sting deals 50% increased damage to enemies for 3 seconds after you first strike them with it.
- Eviscerate (Level 9): Hellion Sting has 40% increased chance to Eviscerate against your primary target.
- Multi-Strike (Level 14): Casting Hellion Sting within 1.5 seconds of the last will increase the number of strikes, up to 2 total hits per strike.
Though it isn’t an abyss skill like Doom, Hellion Sting feels a lot more effective as a basic skill to me, partly because of its range and speed, but also its ability to Eviscerate, stacking bleed on enemies, which makes it strong early on. Considering your Dread Claws are the real DPS in this build, Hellion Sting is mainly used to generate the Wrath resource when low.
2. Dread Claws
- Damage (Level 6): Every second, gain 20% increased damage for your Dread Claws, up to 100%.
- Ambush (Level 10): Dread Claws deals 50% increased damage with its first claw strike against each enemy. When attacking from Stealth, all claws gain this bonus.
- Cascading Dread (Level 15): Dread Claws sends out 4 additional claws and each set deals 30% increased damage than the last.
Dread Claws is an incredibly powerful abyss core skill, casting a wave of overlapping slashes that can hit enemies multiple times. The reason they’re strong, though, is their passives, buffing damage by up to 100% based on cast time, dealing more damage with the first claw to hit an enemy, and increasing the number of claws as well as the damage inflicted on subsequent hits.
Perhaps the most important buff, though, is the 50% increased damage for every claw while in Stealth, which you can gain with Shadowform, and is something you’ll be able to take advantage of with this build via Nether Step, the Mastermind Shard, and the Terror Demon Metamorphosis ultimate once you’re high enough level.
3. Nether Step
- Extra Charge (Level 7): Nether Step gains an additional charge.
- Movement Speed (Level 11): Nether Step’s movement bonus lasts 50% longer.
- Gloomwalker (Level 15): Nether Step lets you run through the abyss while Immune for up to 3 seconds. Cast again to exit early.
Nether Step is a great survivability skill, a little like Blood Mist for Warlocks, but it also grants you four stacks of Shadowform when you emerge. When you move with Shadowform, you consume a stack and gain Stealth, which prevents you being targeted, but also adds bonus damage effects for abyss skills. Dread Claws get the damage bonus from the Ambush passive, and the Mastermind Shard buffs the damage of all abyss skills by 30% when you have Shadowform.
The best passive is Gloomwalker, since you can use this to position yourself for an ideal Dread Claws cast while gaining the maximum damage bonus for being stealthed and the damage buildup via having not cast for a while.
4. Profane Sentinel
- Single Target Damage (Level 12): Profane Sentinel deals 30% increased damage when it only hits a single target.
- Narrow Blast (Level 17): Profane Sentinel deals 25% increased damage, but its blast area is reduced by 50%.
- Focused Glare (Level 20): The longer Profane Sentinel is locked onto the same enemy the stronger it becomes, dealing 25% more damage every second.
This abyss turret is amazing for dealing with elites and bosses. Once you summon the turret, you can direct its targeting with the same input, and with the passives above, it’ll gain increased damage while firing on a single target continuously, building up over time. I also recommend taking the Subjugation Fragment for the Mastermind Shard, since this will boost its damage by 1.75% per Dominance on cast for a 52.5% buff if you cast at full.
This passive also grants 1 Dominance every two seconds when you have Shadowform, which you will often have with this build.
5. Terror Swarm
- Extra Bites (Level 22): Terror Swarm now bites up to 2 additional times per second.
- Pull (Level 24): Terror Swarm periodically pulls enemies into the centre of the swarm.
- Devouring Swarm (Level 25): Terror Swarm starts smaller and weaker, but grows up to 3 times as it feeds on enemies. Upon reaching maximum size, swarms split off into another smaller swarm. Can have up to 3 active swarms.
Terror Swarm is a powerful AoE ult that I suggest using until you reach level 40 and get the Terror Demon passive for the Metamorphosis ult instead, which really pushes this build into the stratosphere. This is still a decent ult, though, especially as you can just cast it down and it’ll take care of itself, chomping through enemies and growing larger.
6. Metamorphosis
- Damage Scaling (Level 22): Metamorphosis increases your Demonology skill damage by 1% for each 842 bonus Maximum Life you have.
- Dominance (Level 24): Metamorphosis reduces your Dominance costs by 20%.
- Terror Demon (Level 40): Metamorphosis becomes an abyss skill that does not replace any skills and lasts 21.60 seconds. Metamorphosis grants 4 Shadowform stacks every second, and abyss skills do not break stealth while active.
You should switch Terror Swarm to Metamorphosis as soon as you reach Level 40 and can unlock the Terror Demon passive, which allows you to enter Demonform and transforms this skill into a superstate where you get Shadowform stacks every second. This lets you supercharge your Dread Claws, getting the damage passives on every cast, but it also increases your max life by 20% and has a super short cooldown.
Your basic skill will also regen Dominance, and thanks to your Subjugation Fragment on the Mastermind Shard, you’ll regen more Dominance when you have Shadowform. This will let you cast your Profane Sentinel more easily, consuming all your Dominance for that big damage buff to it.
If you’re looking for skills to level once you’ve unlocked all of these and their passives, then prioritise Dread Claws, Profane Sentinel, and Metamorphosis.
Warlock Uniques, Aspects, and Tempering
There are four Warlock uniques in-particular that I recommend keeping an eye out for with this build:
|
Unique |
Effect |
|---|---|
|
Litany of Sable (dagger) |
Dread Claws deal 100-120% increased damage and additional claws fire out when you gain a stack of Shadowform. |
|
Seal of the Ophanim (ring) |
Profane Sentinel deals 230-270% increased damage and summons an additional eye that follows you for 10 seconds. |
|
Rictus of Terror (helm) |
Laalish deals 100-120% increased damage. Command Laalish’s Terror Realm is an ultimate skill that lasts 100% longer and while active your abyss skills execute enemies. |
|
Night Terror (amulet) |
Your abyss skills deal 6-9% increased damage for each stack of Shadowform. This bonus is increased by 100% when you have Stealth. |
While these will come from specific bosses, remember that you can also upgrade a common dagger, amulet, helm, or ring to potentially get any of these at the Horadric Cube once you unlock it through the Lord of Hatred campaign—this is how I got Rictus of Terror.
In terms of Aspects, I recommend:
|
Aspect |
Effect |
|---|---|
|
Deeper Shadows |
Maximum Shadowform stacks increased by 2-6. |
|
Diabolical Armor |
Demonform grants 20% damage reduction plus an additional 0.5-1% for 5 seconds, anytime you take fire damage, up to 5-10%. |
|
Malicious Aspect |
While in Demonform, you deal 2.5-4.5% increased damage for every Demon or enemy close to you, up to 50-90%. |
|
Demonic Aspect |
Each hit with Demonology skills increases the damage you deal with Demonology skills by 2.3-3.3% for 10 seconds, up to 45-65%. |
|
Insidious Aspect |
Your abyss skills deal 60-80% increased damage to enemies who have not hit you in the last 2 seconds. |
|
Fathomless Dark |
Your abyss skills deal increased damage equal to 60-80% of your shadow resistance damage reduction. |
Deeper Shadows and Demonic Aspect, in particular, are very strong for a Demonform Dread Claws build, especially if you have Night Terror to get that damage increase for each stack of Shadowform you have. If you want a quick way to make your build even stronger, remember you can also temper your gear at the blacksmith with the new Warlock affixes, such as:
- Abyss Damage
- Demonology Damage
- Damage While Shadowform is Active
- Demonform Damage Bonus
I’d recommend Abyss Damage as a priority since it has a higher roll range, but remember you’ll also want to buff your Maximum Life to take advantage of the Metamorphosis Damage Scaling passive, which increases your Demonology skill damage by 1% for every 842 bonus life you have—Dread Claws is a Demonology skill, after all.
That said, I absolutely blazed through every boss and level in the campaign without any Uniques, Aspects, or Tempered affixes whatsoever. This build is incredibly strong, especially with Demonform’s short cooldown, allowing you a guaranteed source of Shadowform and Stealth for the big bonuses they provide alongside Dread Claws other damage-boosting passives.
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